


To My Surprise

by villainsarebetter (darkling59)



Series: Monster Month [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Creature Fic, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5098538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkling59/pseuds/villainsarebetter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s Belle’s responsibility to check up on Gold (Avalonea Wildlife Park’s prize naga) after he is involved in a violent altercation with a visiting naga (Zelena). Belle only wants to make sure he isn’t injured, but she might have bitten off more than she could chew when she walks unarmed into his enclosure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Day #3! Rumple is the monster today, though Belle is the one calling the shots (for the most part). Bit of a different setting in this one.

Belle stepped into the naga enclosure with a confident spring to her step, ignoring the terrified whispers of the handlers and keepers at her back. They were still spooked from yesterday’s…incident.

Director Miller’s female naga, Zelena, was still in the veterinary clinic recovering from her fight with Gold and she’d already put six vet techs in the hospital during her short internment. Her friendly demeanor had turned nasty real fast when she was forced into a quarantine cage, but there was no help for it; Gold’s venom still had not been fully countered, leaving weeping black wounds on Zelena’s neck and arm, and she had bloody furrows down her back and tail from her opponent’s claws. Gold - the only other participant in the fight - had managed to evade the zoo’s tranquilizers so far and his nestling had not been seen at all since Zelena was removed from the naga enclosure, so no one even knew if the two male nagas were injured or not.

That was why they called Belle, and why she was purposely entering the territory of a large predator whose species was known to attack and devour human prey. She was the only one Gold reliably listened to and their only option for a peaceful resolution to the current standoff…even if he was tangled up in the trees, hissing at anyone who came close. He was usually a reclusive, even-tempered creature, but extreme situations could apparently drive him into a rage, and Zelena had _really_ put him out of sorts.

So Belle was here at the behest of the park to make sure one of their prize animals was not about to drop dead from his injuries or go crazy with bloodlust…and, to be honest, because she was worried.

Gold was her favorite creature in “Avalonea’s Zoological Reserve and Wildlife Park”; he was the only one she was responsible for catching in the wild and the only one she shared a close relationship with. Plus, she was well aware of what Zelena had done to incur his wrath and, terrifying though it had been to watch, he had been completely justified in his rage.

Even if those secondary fangs and _venom_ had been completely unexpected…

“Gold?” She called out at the edge of his thicket of trees, the largest source of cover in his enclosure. There was no way he wasn’t watching her, even if she couldn’t see him. There was no answer.

Belle frowned, the first tickle of unease crawling down her spine. Normally, he emerged to greet her or at least let out the quiet hiss-huff that she’d learned was a naga’s version of ‘hello’.

“Gold?”

Still nothing.

Belle paused, conflicted, hands tightening on the plastic back full of fruit in one hand (heavily laced with tranquilizers - he really _did_ need to see a vet and none of them would ever consider coming near him while he was lucid), and the short staff in her other - the only weapon she’d agreed to bring, knowing he would see anything else as a threat.

She might not be a trained zookeeper; her expertise was more towards record keeping and occasional field work; but she knew better than to disturb an angry wild animal, especially one that was cornered and acting unpredictably. She should turn around and leave, let the keepers chase Gold out of the trees with gas or flash-grenades and check on him once he was tranquilized and properly restrained in the clinic. That would be safest.

…But he could be _hurt_. She couldn’t just turn her back on him. Besides, she _trusted_ the naga, strange as that sounded.

Steeling herself for anything, she stepped into the trees, ignoring the keepers shouting warnings at her from behind the gate. She’d barely made it two feet before she heard a low, angry hiss and a thick coil of muscle wrapped around her calf - a warning.

Belle stopped instantly, looking down at the long, muscular snake tail and following its gold-tipped green scales up to Gold’s human torso which was perched in a tree overhead. He was staring down at her with narrow reptilian eyes.

Belle smiled, leaning her staff against a tree trunk to free up a hand, then reaching out to stroke the nearest scaly coil, as thick around as her entire body. She knew from personal experience that he was more than strong enough to crush someone to death using only the strength of his tail, and from research that nagas were not picky about how they killed their prey. But she knew he wouldn’t kill her; his anger was reserved for Zelena.

“Hey Gold.” She kept her voice steady and confident, refusing to back down. “I’m here to make sure you’re okay.” She kept stroking his scales, taking it as a good sign that he did not protest the contact. “And I brought you treats!” She held up the bag of fruit and smiled when his eyes latched on to it with reluctant interest.

He was well aware what _that_ word meant.

His next growling sigh was more resigned than upset and he slid out of his tree, instinctively coiling his tail to support his upper body on the ground and slithering closer, eyes fixed on the fruit.

“Aht!” Belle held up her hand flat in the universal signal for 'stop’, and he paused, looking at her expectantly. Once he’d acclimated to his captivity, she’d discovered that he was extremely intelligent - it was easy to train him to follow basic spoken commands and hand signals. Or, rather, she taught him what they _meant_ ; whether he actually listened to her or not seemed to depend on his mood. Treats helped; he was often willing to be bribed; but she always knew he was making a conscious choice when he obeyed, and that he could choose to stop at any time.

While he was still, Belle let her eyes rove over his bare chest and fully exposed coils, looking for any sign of injury. He had nasty bruising around his jaw and the left side of his neck, and a healing cut down the side of his cheek. There was a set of five angry red lines across his chest where Zelena had obviously slashed him with her claws, and Belle thought she could see some disturbed patches of scales along the back of his tail, hopefully bruises rather than internal injuries but she could not be sure.

She sighed. “You’ve certainly got yourself into trouble this time, Gold.” He cocked his head, studying her curiously, and she shook her head, dropping her hand to the bag and reaching inside to remove an orange slice. The naga respected her command and did not move until she smiled and called out to him.

“Come here.”

He slithered forward, accepting the fruit with his own hand and sniffing it eagerly.

Then he stopped.

Abruptly, his body language changed. His shoulders stiffened and his head snapped up, eyes squinting in anger - and _betrayal_. He dropped the orange and an angry growling hiss was Belle’s only warning before she was suddenly pinned by mountains of heavy scales and muscle. At the first impact, she dropped the bag of fruit and gasped in to let out a startled scream, but it came out a wheezing squeak as her lungs were compressed painfully tight.

"G-Gold?!” She couldn’t help the trembling whimper that came out when his tail tightened, crushing arms and legs together against her body and _squeezing_ …

He growled again, swaying his human head forward and _sniffing_ her; the side of her neck, her shoulder, and the front of her vest. Then he pulled back with a disgusted snort and loomed over her, held in place by his swaying tail and glaring in anger.

For a long moment, Belle didn’t understand. She was stunned by his sudden betrayal; he hadn’t attacked her like this since she’d found him starving in the wild; but even more confused by the betrayal in _his_ expression. She must have done something…it couldn’t be the tranquilizer, he ate laced fruit happily all the time, so why…

The tranquilizer. The clinic. _Zelena_.

She’d helped one of Zelena’s victims to the hospital that morning and never bothered to change. Worse, the fruit had probably been prepared by someone helping with the vicious female naga.

Gold thought she smelled like _Zelena_.

Suddenly, Belle understood just how horribly dangerous this situation had become in less than twenty seconds. Gold had damn near killed Zelena and he could hold grudges as badly a sphinx. He liked Belle, but if he thought Belle had betrayed him, she had no idea what he would do. And considering he could easily kill her - accidentally, if he was truly that angry - unpredictable was very, very bad.

“No, Gold.” She forced out, panting as his coils tightened, constricting her. “I wasn’t…wasn’t helping Zelena. She’s…she’s not coming back. I promise.” Making a split second decision, Belle lowered her head, looking up through her bangs in a posture she knew was submissive for nagas. “Please…” She gasped, worried her face was starting to go blue. “Please don’t do this.”

The male naga cocked his head, skeptical but suddenly unsure. He leaned forward and sniffed her again, then tentatively reached out with a clawed hand and ran it through her hair.

Belle’s eyes widened but she didn’t move. He _never_ touched her with his hands if he could help it. She didn’t know what it meant for nagas, but it was something important.

When she didn’t pull away, he settled slightly and his coils loosened enough to let her gasp in shallow gulps of air, though not to let her go. His hands ran through her hair, then traveled to her shoulder, sharp claws picking delicately against the straps and fabric, then down her vest where he had sniffed. She’d seen him do something like this before, with his nestling…

Was he _grooming_ her?

She stayed still and submissive, letting him examine her with cautious claws while her mind raced. It didn’t take her long to realize the connection between his sniffing, his anger, and his sudden desire to touch her. He was replacing Zelena’s scent with his own. In essence, _claiming_ Belle.

…She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

As Gold continued to touch her, erasing Zelena’s scent, he relaxed and the coils around Belle loosened, to her relief. After five minutes, she was allowed to wiggle her hands and after ten, he let her pull them away from her sides and rest them on the top of his coils. He sniffed at her arms critically, searching for any sign of Zelena before moving on.

He was gentle and meticulous, and Belle found herself watching him with curiosity. The grooming ritual seemed to be calming him like nothing else had since the fight; he looked considerably happier and more relaxed when he finished and released her completely, letting her out of his coils with something like reluctance.

Belle stretched the kinks out of her back (hoping that she wouldn’t have bruises from that first painful squeeze) and stooped to pick up the discarded bag of fruit. She wasn’t surprised when he curled his lip at it, knowing by now that it had to smell like Zelena.

“Alright, Gold.” She sighed. “I’ll get you some new fruit. Don’t go anywhere. And _please_ behave for the vet?”

The word 'vet’ got a sullen hiss in response, but he respected her firm following command to “stay” and watched her retreat to the gate.

Ariel stood on the other side, face pale and eyes wide. “Belle! Oh, thank god! We thought you were _dead_!”

Belle laughed uncomfortably, doing her best to ignore her ruffled appearance even as the others gaped at her. “Of course not. I’m fine! But this-.” She held up the bag of now-bruised fruit. “Is not going to work.”

“What’s-What’s wrong with it? He never had a problem with the sedative before…”

“Judging by his reaction, it smells like Zelena.”

Eyes widened and breath caught all around. “ _Oh_.”

“Yeah.” Belle grimaced. “I can get him to cooperate, but not with _this_. I need fruit that has been nowhere near Zelena, or anyone who’s been in contact with her.”

It didn’t take long for one of the keepers to raid the foodstocks, and Belle watched from just inside Gold’s enclosure as the keepers measured out the correct amount of sedation powder and poured it into the bag, adding water to dissolve it and make it stick to the fruit.

She accepted the new bag through the bars and left them with a warning. “It shouldn’t take long for him to go down, but whoever you get to look at him, make sure they haven’t touched Zelena. We don’t want to stress him out any more than he already is.”

Gold was waiting for her inside the treeline, right where she’d left him.

She held up the back, cocking her head in question. “Treat?”

He hissed and crossed his arms but did not back away.

“This one doesn’t smell like Zelena, I promise.” She opened the bag and let him smell the mixture from a few feet away. Reluctantly interested, Gold leaned forward and tentatively hooked a grape out of the bag. When he ate it, Belle knew she’d won.

Normally, she would offer him the fruit from her own hands, using each piece as a reward when he obeyed her or performed well in his training exercises. He never used his mouth to take it, just his hands. However, today was a special occasion so she let him take the whole bag, slowly fishing the fruit out piece by piece with his fingers. By the time he reached the bottom of the bag, his eyes were drooping and he was swaying in place. He made a grumpy, sleepy sound and Belle laughed.

“Don’t give me that, you knew what would happen.”

He had. It was their most common method of incapacitating him, but he rarely seemed bothered. No one thought they were tricking him; he knew full well what the tranquilizing powder did, and they knew he was humoring them by eating it.

“Come on, Gold.” Belle stepped out into the open, beckoning the naga. After a moment, he followed into the bright sunshine, slow and yawning. He followed her all the way to his basking stone and cooperatively laid out on his back, resting his head on the ground when she crouched by his head.

It was easier to be open with him when he was like this (essentially helpless and incapable of killing her if she did something wrong), and she reached out and ran her hand through his shaggy hair, tracing his cheek gently. He blinked at her slowly through unfocused, mostly-closed eyes and she knew he was completely under the sedative’s effects.

At her signal, a vet and three assistants rushed into the enclosure and over to the naga. They were not his usual caretakers, and acted downright terrified - no doubt having heard the horror stories of Zelena - but Gold was perfectly behaved in his drugged stupor and they completed their exam quickly; stitching closed the cuts on his chest, checking the bruising and broken scales for any serious injuries (there were none), and disinfecting the more topical cuts on his face and back.

Their last order of business was his fangs - they needed to look into his venom, to figure out what it was and why they had missed it until now, but Belle warned them away. Even in his current condition, Gold would reflexively bite anything that was put in his mouth, and she didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

She’d have to help them try again once they had specialized equipment set up, but for now she was content to know her favorite naga was safe and healthy.

With a final parting ruffle to his hair, Belle left Gold to sleep off the sedative in peace.

* * *

**Notes on this universe:**

-Gold and Bae (His nestling) are perfectly intelligent, but cannot speak the same way a human would. Their mental state is much more…primal than most humans. Closer to their primal instincts, and ruled more by emotion and automatic reactions than thought. (The humans do not know this.)

-Gold was born human a long time ago (naga have an increased life-span), but Milah was always a naga and met him after he was transformed. She abandoned her egg with him, so he hatched and raised Bae (who has always been a naga) on his own.

-Gold and Belle met when she was on an expedition looking for ancient ruins and he was suffering from a difficult winter. He tried to eat her, but could not bring himself to finish her off. She called in backup with tranquilizer guns while he was trying to decide what to do.

-Zelena incurred Gold’s wrath by attacking Bae.


	2. Prompt 1

_**Prompt #1** _

**Prompt** : @iambicdearie. Naga!Verse: Belle discovers Gold has a talent or ability she didn’t know nagas possessed.

* * *

_This takes place a significant amount of time before the first chapter, a couple months after Rumple is captured._

* * *

 “What do you mean he climbed out?!” Belle’s shrill shout was audible all the way on the other side of the parking lot and an entire crowd of zoo-going guests paused to turn and look at the source of the noise. Archie, the poor guy who’d been sent to pull her away from her office, shuffled nervously and gently took her arm to direct her towards a nearby employee entrance to the Park, keeping his head turned so the crowd couldn’t see his face and whispering to an understandably panicked Belle.

“We’re trying to keep it under wraps, to avoid causing a mass panic.”

“Under wraps?! Archie, nagas are dangerous! The guests-!”

Archie held up his hands in a placating gesture, but his nervous stammering and shifty eyes gave away his anxiety. “David knows where the naga went and it’s staying put. That part of the park has been closed for…um…'renovation’, so there won’t be any guests there.”

“Unless he _moves_!”

“We-well, we were hoping you could help? You have the most experience with nagas, and they’re having problems with the tranquilizers…”

Belle swallowed, hard. It hadn’t been too long since she’d met the naga, and she still remembered the horrible, all-encompassing pressure of his attack, the constriction that could have easily broken every bone in her body given mere moments more, and the sensation of _knowing_ she was going to die. She still didn’t know why the naga hadn’t followed through, but she wasn’t inclined to give him another chance.

Oh, she didn’t _blame_ him; he was a wild animal with a youngster to provide for, and he’d been starving. She’d even made peace with him, confronted him from the other side of the quarantine pen a week after his capture (he’d been understandably irate), and again a week after that when he’d been introduced to his permanent enclosure. After getting a few good meals and realizing the humans were not going to hurt him or his son, he’d mellowed out considerably and seemed receptive to her presence. Sometimes, she even thought there was something like regret in his eyes when he watched her.

And, for her part, she’d become bold enough to stand up close to the bars, and even reach through to touch his scales when he lay close enough to the side of his enclosure, interactions that he tolerated with no apparent anger or irritation. She’d also been permitted to name him by the park, as the one responsible for his acquisition, and that created a special sort of bond.

However, she’d never, ever considered confronting the newly dubbed 'Gold’ face-to-face since his capture. She knew firsthand what sort of tragedy could happen if he became angry or hungry. The very thought of those powerful coils wrapped around anyone - guest, keeper, guard, one of her _friends_ …- made her shudder.

But people were in danger, and if she could protect them then that was what she would do.

Besides, _this_ time she would have backup. Last time, she’d been completely alone and still managed to escape with only a few bruises and bad memories for her trouble.

Belle took a deep bracing breath and nodded to Archie.

“Alright. Where is he?”

* * *

It turned out, Gold hadn’t gone far. The 'renovation’ excuse wasn’t much of a lie - he was still on the border of the naga exhibit, which had not yet been opened to the public. Archie led her to a small cafe surrounded by tall fruit trees and lush bushes and facing a courtyard filled with picnic benches, one of the new restaurants that would be ready for its grand opening within a week.

Well, _if_ they got the naga out.

Belle stopped and stared as soon as she reached the courtyard, gawking at the sight of Gold’s tail curled over the roof of the building. Only the last four feet or so were visible; the rest of him was hidden in the trees, betrayed by the occasional rustle of leaves and glint of sun on scales.

“Belle! Hey.” David, the lead security guard, smiled at her, but his eyes were nervous and his shoulders tense. “Think you can help us out with this? The darts won’t go through his scales, and we can’t get a shot at his skin.”

“I…He can _climb_.” She stuttered out. Sure, snakes could climb, but she’d never heard of it from nagas. And Gold’s tail weighed a _lot_ ; she hadn’t expected any feats of acrobatics from him, and especially not the effortless way he seemed to be maneuvering through the tree branches. The thought of a naga on the _ground_ was scary enough…but one that could drop from _trees_?

“Yeah, surprised us too.” David grimaced. “We’ll need to renovate his enclosure some more.” Belle nodded as David continued. “All we need you to do is lure him out and get his upper body into the open so we can tranq him. Don’t get too close, don’t give him a reason to grab you, and be _careful_. If it looks like he’s getting aggressive, get out of there.”

Belle took a deep breath, nodded, and set out for the trees, stopping when she was a meter from the one that was sporadically rustling.

“Gold?” Her voice was more tentative than she’d hoped and she instantly cleared it and squared her shoulders.

A quiet hissing sound followed by a coughing huff was her only response. She inched closer, advancing until she was under the tree and could look up through the branches and see him. To her surprise, he was lounging lazily in the main fork, tail coils wrapped loosely around its lower trunk, with his eyes half-lidded, and his head leaning against the nearest tree limb. He had a peeled orange in one hand missing over three quarters of its slices while his other hand was sticky with fruit juice. Orange rinds from probably a _dozen_ oranges littered the ground around him.

He looked utterly content.

Belle literally _felt_ the tension drain from her muscles. A happy naga was a harmless naga.

“Hey, Gold.” This time, the words were smooth and confident. “I didn’t know you liked fruit.” But it made sense - humans were omnivores, after all, and he shared many of their physical traits. And with the desolate winter environment where she’d found him, he probably hadn’t had anything other than tough meat to eat in a _long_ time. He perked up slightly when she spoke, opening his eyes fully when she reached into the next tree and picked an over-ripe plum. A plan was brewing in her mind; it was completely impulsive, and had every possibility of going wrong, but she had a gut instinct telling her to just _do it_ …

The skin of the plum was easy to slice with her fingernail and a dribble of juice seeped out, making her hands sticky and smelling strong and sweet. Gold cocked his head in obvious interest and popped the rest of the orange into his mouth, dropping out of the tree onto suddenly mobile coils that were a hell of a lot more flexible than Belle had expected.

She swallowed, registering that he was mere feet away, but maintained her smile, held his stare, and took a single step backwards.

“Belle?!” David’s voice hollered and Gold’s head came up, eyes narrowing. “Are you alright? He moved!”

“Hey, no!” She soothed, mentally cursing when the naga stiffened. She waved the plum, catching his attention again, though his focus was not as absolute. “That’s just David. He won’t hurt you.”

She stepped backwards out of the trees, still tempting him forward with the plum.

He paused at the border, eyeing the guards and their guns with wariness.

“David, back up.” Belle instructed without looking at him.

“Belle?”

“"Back up and open the door to his enclosure. I can get him inside.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think so.”

“But…the little one’s still in there…”

“Just do it, please? And close the door after me. I’ll go out the keeper’s entrance.”

The guards didn’t go far, but Gold relaxed once they were out of his direct eyesight and slithered after her, following cooperatively as she led. He could easily grab her and _take_ the fruit, but something told Belle he wouldn’t do that - he wanted her to _give_ it to him. And the fact that he’d left his nestling, his child, behind in the enclosure was the last reassurance she needed that he’d be willing to go back; he’d never intended to go far.

The door David opened was a maintenance entrance and not something Gold should have ever accessed (the _proper_ entrance for the animals was through the holding facility at the back of the park), but he easily managed the steps and followed her back into his enclosure.

Belle’s grin was victorious as she watched his tail clear the tunnel and David close the door on the other side. Her plan worked!

It wasn’t until the naga made a quiet grumbling sound that she realized she was standing alone in Gold’s enclosure, right next to an unrestrained fully grown naga with nothing holding him back, and she wasn’t scared.

Even when she handed him the plum and his son slithered out of the trees to his father’s side to see what he’d brought, her fear did not return.

And when she walked away, exiting through the zookeeper’s entrance without any interference or hostility from Gold, she knew something had changed between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished all of the prompts for my Monster Month stories! :)
> 
> I decided to wait to post most of them until I was done because I wanted the installments for each story posted in chronological order. (There are a handful already posted to tumblr, but I'll be transferring them over as well). As a result, I've got well over a dozen prompts ready for y'all in all seven (eight?) verses. I'll be posting one a day until I'm out!
> 
> Enjoy! And please let me know what you think. ;)


	3. Prompt 2

_**Seasons of Change** _

**This Prompt Fill:** The early spring is mating season for fantastical creatures, and Belle finds herself drawn into caring for the animals at the park as they become aggressive and territorial - including Gold.

**Prompt** : @thestraggletag: Naga!Rumple grows possessive of Belle during mating season. **Prompt** : @Anonymous: Naga series! Belle gets hurt on the job somehow, it’s nothing serious, a simple bandage can cover up the scratch or whatever. When she visits Gold however, he picks up on the scent of her blood and becomes overly protective of her?

* * *

Early spring was always a very… _energetic_ period at Avalonea’s Zoological Reserve and Wildlife Park. The dreary cold season ended and the creatures in the exhibits shook off their winter lethargy. Recharged from their dormancy, they were energetic and troublesome. In the wild, it would have been time to expand territories, hunt for food, and seek out members of the opposite sex to engage in courtship displays. As such, the early spring was also mating season.

Belle was no stranger to the animals’ troubles at this time of year; she’d been at the park for five years (though rarely out of her office) and knew the howls of yeti looking for mates, the shrieks of challenging griffins, the elaborate courtship displays and fire breathing of the pygmy dragons, and even the eerie wail of their single basilisk. All of them could be heard from her office (others were quiet enough to be easily avoided) and she was used to it. It was a hassle, but manageable.

However, mating season also made the animals aggressive and that was much more difficult to handle. Even though Belle was not technically a zookeeper, she had a reputation after ‘taming’ the zoo’s capricious naga, so a little over a year after his capture she found herself drawn into helping her friends wrangle their beasts.

It was backbreaking work but fascinating and the senior handlers made sure she did not get in over her head. In the first week, she got the chance to handle a pygmy dragon, a cerberus, three capricorns, a surly hydra, and more birds than she could count.

On the last day of the week, she was called to help with a pair of male unicorns that had gotten in a fight over a female. She wasn’t allowed to be in direct contact (those horns were _sharp_ ) but she helped with corralling measures and distracting their targets. She was right on the other side of the zookeeper’s entrance, mere inches from the action and she was so exhilarated from helping manage a wild, bucking, dangerous animal that she didn’t notice when one hand slipped and her wrist got nicked open on a sharp edge of the fence, spattering a few drops of blood on the sleeves and cuffs of her shirt. Once they were done with the unicorns (successfully contained and given a mild sedative to calm them down) she washed her hands and, flush with success, decided to go see Gold.

* * *

“Hey Gold! You would not _believe_ the day I’ve had…” Belle was still buzzing from adrenaline and pride, so much so that her normal caution wavered and she greeted the naga like she would any other human, not even pausing to consider how _he_ would take the lack of respectful distance and care. She also thought nothing of turning her eyes away from him after the initial greeting, instead talking as she walked through his enclosure.

The naga’s normal _hiss-huff_ of greeting was somehow more guttural than normal, more growl than huff.

Belle didn’t notice.

She _also_ didn’t notice how tense he became when she passed him or the unnervingly intense way his eyes were fixed on her. As she talked and waved her arms to express the scale of her day, the naga’s eyes skipped to her arm. His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. Belle wasn’t aware of the still-wet speckles of red splattered on the cuff of her shirt or the source of it -the line of blood that ran from the base of her wrist up her forearm - but Gold definitely did.

Gold’s shoulders straightened and he swayed slightly on his tail. When he slithered forward, the quiet sounds of his passage were lost beneath the noise of her talking. It was easy to forget that he was an apex predator when their interactions were usually so friendly and he spent most of his days lazing around in his enclosure.

However, Belle’s false sense of security didn’t last long. As soon as he was in range, Gold grabbed her arm by the elbow, instantly bringing her to a halt.

He was touching her with his _hands._ It was such a rare occurrence that Belle just gaped in surprise. Then his tail wound around her legs and she gulped. The last time anything like this had happened was after the fight with Zelena which had nearly ended in tragedy. But his expression wasn’t enraged this time…in fact, Belle was having a hard time making out the emotions on his face as he inspected her arm. His tail only coiled around her legs once, holding her in place but not constricting. His behavior seemed more possessive than aggressive.

One hand stayed on her elbow while the other explored her sleeve and arm, revealing the bloody scratch. At the sight of it, his lips skinned back from his fangs slightly and he leaned his head towards her wrist, sniffing deeply.

When Belle saw the blood, she instantly tried to pull back, her unease growing, but she was well and truly trapped in Gold’s grasp. He let out a no-nonsense grumble and she would have laughed at the stern look on his face if she weren’t getting increasingly worried. Now that she could see him in full, she noticed that his scales had changed - they were brighter green at the base and more golden at the tips, and she thought she could even make out some faint markings that had not been visible during the winter. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe he’d just molted and she hadn’t noticed.

Or maybe this was mating season for nagas just like the rest of the park. Which meant he was likely to be extra territorial and aggressive.

“H-hey Gold. I’m fine, see?” She wiggled her fingers in front of his face, trying to illustrate that the scratch was not hurting her. The naga frowned, sniffed at it, and then _licked_ it.

“G-Gold!” She yelped, heat flushing her face. Looking almost as startled as she felt, Gold jerked back and for a moment she thought sheer surprise would get through to him. Then his expression firmed, she felt a coil of his tail move around her legs - not tightly, just enough to keep her feet in place - and knew he wouldn’t stop. He applied himself back to his self-assigned task, cleaning the scratch with his tongue.

She remembered what he’d done to Zelena and she _really_ hoped his saliva did not have any venom in it, but he wasn’t showing any sign of hostility so she decided not to call for help. His tongue was flatter and smoother than that of a human, she observed curiously, and far more dexterous. Belle waited patiently, watching as he bowed over her hand, licking the cut with methodical efficiency until he finally deemed it clean, gave one last short lick, and straightened his torso.

“Finished?” She asked, unable to keep a tinge of amusement from her tone. He looked straight at her for a moment, obviously surprised - though she did not know if it was her reaction or something else that startled him, then instantly released her and moved back so fast he almost fell over. The naga actually looked embarrassed and Belle couldn’t help laughing.

She wasn’t so distracted that she didn’t notice him smile in return, or the way his scales flashed even more brilliantly in the sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! And please let me know what you think. :)


	4. Prompt 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to modify the prompt a little bit to keep with the ‘verse. I hope you enjoy it!

  _ **Growing Up** _

**This Prompt Fill:** Baelfire watches his father’s interactions with Belle and wonders about his future in the zoo and beyond.

**Prompt** : @ashadeofpemberley:Naga!verse- Bae wonders if the female human is his new mother, and if she is- why doesn’t she have a tail like he and his papa?

* * *

_This happens at the same time as the previous chapter._

* * *

Bae watched his father and the human courting each other with mixed feelings. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his papa’s Chosen or that he thought she wanted to hurt him – she was _nothing_ like the poisonous green female with red hair. _THAT_ attempted courtship was always destined to fail - but this one wasn’t _like_ him and his papa. She had legs and no tail, plus she lived on the other side of the wall while Bae and his papa lived inside. Most importantly, she was prey and they were hunters _._ Bae worried that his father was setting himself up for pain.

It didn’t help that Bae was finally reaching maturity, making his own feelings for his father mixed. Oh, there was no doubt he loved his papa…but adult nagas were solitary aggressive predators, especially the males. In fact, Bae’s life had been very strange by naga standards.

Most naga females laid eggs in warm climates and had clutches of up to five hatchlings which she usually cared for alone. Male nagas didn’t often stick around to help; less than half were pair-bonded and the rest went their own way after courting and coupling were complete. It was the mother that picked her nesting ground carefully, choosing a place where the eggs would be safe and there was plenty of prey.

The eggs hatched after about a year and the baby nagas’ growth rate depended on how much food their mother was able to catch. Oh, for a little while they aged normally (by human standards) - until they hit puberty and truly came into their own. At that point, they became _voracious._ They ate anything and everything and grew at an alarming rate. Some could reach adulthood in mere months if there was enough food. However, if there _wasn’t_ enough food and the environment couldn’t handle a growing naga, they stayed small. It was a survival mechanism that helped them survive adolescence in the wild. (Smaller animals need less food.)

Bae didn’t know why his mother had abandoned his egg with his papa, or why she’d only had one and done so in a cold place. Even his father did not know – Milah had simply left before Bae’s hatching and Rumpelstiltskin had muddled his way through raising a hatchling on his own. Until they were captured by humans, there had been very little food and Bae had stayed small.

However, there was plentiful food at the park and once Bae was able to eat…and eat…and eat until he was full, he began growing up _very_ fast. Now, a little over a year later, he was only one or two growth spurts from being fully grown.

Nagas were territorial and solitary, their instincts drove them to aggression when they lived too close to others (with the exceptions of parents with children and bonded pairs) and recently Bae found himself covertly comparing himself to his papa and becoming irritated when the older naga came near him. Just the other day, he’d hissed angrily when Rumpelstiltskin got to their dinner first. The look of stunned shock and hurt on his papa’s face struck in Bae’s mind…but he couldn’t _help_ it. He _needed_ his own space _._ His own _territory._

And this was _spring. Mating season._ The first season he’d experienced where he was mature enough to appreciate what that meant. His instincts screamed at him to establish a territory, to travel and find somewhere he could call his own so he could court a female…or challenge his papa for ownership of this place. He was still young enough that the very thought of attacking – and maybe _hurting_ – the older naga made him feel sick inside.

He had to leave. There was nothing else for it.

As he watched the strange mating dance between his papa and the female human, she made the loud fluting noise he knew was her version of a laugh and his papa purred quietly, flashing his scales and preening at having made her happy.

If she’d been a naga, they would be perfect for each other. Bae could only hope that even though she wasn’t, it could still work out.

Because he had to leave before the season ended, and he wanted his father to be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm...not very happy with this chapter, to be honest. However, it needed to be included because it's vital to the prompts that come after this. But! As a result of my discontent, there will probably be a follow-up with the conversation between Bae and Rumple that comes after this scene. ;)
> 
> (Also, the only thing I could think of while editing the bit about naga mothers was naga!Rumple and naga!Belle caring for and cuddling five or six little tiny newly hatched baby nagas together. Belle's scales would be blue and silver and the babies would have a mix of their parents' colors - gold, green, silver, and blue. XD)


	5. Prompt 4

**_Growing Up (Part 2)_ **

**This Prompt Fill:** Baelfire and Rumple go on an adventure.

**Prompt** : This is a direct continuation of the previous two prompts (M _ating Season/Seasons of Change_ and _Growing Up_ )

* * *

Mating season was irritating.

Rumpelstiltskin had been a naga for a long time, but he’d never gotten used to the constant irrepressible itch that came with the spring. He felt alternately too hot and too cold, itchy from the tip down to the very base of his tail, and bounced between aggressive, achingly lonely, and lustful. He regularly patrolled his territory and marked the boundaries with claw marks and tracks from his tail, sharpening his claws and polishing his scales in the process. He was instinctively obsessed with the details – making sure it was safe and desirable for a female. Any little irritation or intrusion that he normally would have ignored – such as the ridiculously loud howling he could hear beyond the wall – made him posture aggressively and snarl.

Instinct ruled his behavior even more than normal and it was very unhappy that he wouldn’t be taking a mate this year.

Well, not a naga, anyway.

His human – his Chosen – hit all the right notes. She smelled absolutely _perfect_ and every time he saw her, he wanted to wrap her in his coils and never let go. At the beginning of the season, he’d expected her to stay away when she saw that he’d sharpened his claws and his scales were flashing with mating fire…but she’d come to see him instead. She’d walked right into his territory without pausing, approving of it – and him – and let him touch her, even let him clean her wound. Being so close to her, smelling her blood, _tasting_ her blood, had caused a liquid warmth to pool in his gut which suffused his limbs with pleasing warmth when she smiled.

And she liked his mating colors! She’d smiled and the tone of her voice was admiring when she looked at his flashing scales.

“Papa?”

Dragged from his reverie, Rumple stiffened, instinctively on guard against the scent of an intruding male naga of age to steal his territory, but he quickly shook it off. Bae was his _son_ – he would _always_ be welcome, no matter how much his instincts wanted him to fly into a rage and attack. Instead, he smiled and responded to his son’s quiet huff with a hiss of his own.

“Yes, Bae?”

He turned to look at his son and was startled to find him coiled, staring at his father’s tail where it was flashing gold and green in the sun. Judging his strength.

_A threat._

Rumple tried to shake the thought away, but then _Bae’s_ scales flashed, the copper tips blending with the red base as if he truly was on fire. His eyes were dilated and a low aggressive rumble was starting in his chest.

Not just a threat – a _challenger._

The older naga reared back in surprise, dropping his secondary venom fangs and hissing. He was still bigger than Bae, just barely, and the sight of his full posturing in response to the challenge seemed to snap Bae out of whatever trance-like state he was in, and the younger naga looked away in shame, dropping his head submissively.

Rumple stayed in position for a long moment, stunned and hurt by his son’s challenge.

“Bae?” His hiss was more of a confused whine and he couldn’t quite hide his hurt. For just a moment, the volatile effects of mating season took a backseat to surprise at his son’s actions.

“Sorry Papa. I didn’t – I didn’t mean it.”

But Rumple couldn’t help but notice that his son’s scales were still flushed bronze and his claws were arched to attack, even though he was keeping his upper body lowered in submission. Most adult male nagas – father or not – would have fallen on him in a rage and driven him from the territory for such a challenge.

Rumple cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice even as his emotions wavered between extremes, spurred on by the mating fire and aggression in his blood.

“What’s wrong son?”

“It’s mating season!” The boy shot up, indignant and it took a force of will for Rumple not to bare his teeth. Instead, he cocked his head.

“You’re too young to – “

“Not anymore. No, Papa, please listen to me.” Bae interrupted when Rumple opened his mouth to protest. “I’m a lot older this year. My tail’s almost as long as yours! And I can _feel_ the season.” He bared his teeth, accidentally provoking his father into flashing his scales and flicking sharp claws. “I need to find a mate, papa. And I need my own territory.”

“Bae…” Rumple’s quiet, broken hiss of protest was quickly interrupted, though Bae refused to meet his eyes.

“I’m not a nestling anymore, Papa…and…and I need to leave. If I stay…” His scales flushed and he hunched in embarrassment and shame. “I can’t stay. Besides, you’re going to be taking a mate, right? You won’t want me around.”

He tried for a lopsided smile but Rumple’s eyes were sad and he did not return it.

“You’re my son, Bae. You will always come first.”

“I _can’t_. Please help me get out, Papa. _Please._ ” There was a quiet beseeching whimper behind the hiss and for the first time, Rumple stopped and really took in the physical changes in his boy. A year ago, he’d only come up to his chest and his tail was short – many feet shorter than Rumple’s tail. His scales had been almost uniformly red with only the barest shine of bronze on the tips.

Now…Bae was right. His scales were adult bronze and red and he was nearly the same size as Rumple – one more growth spurt and his tail would actually be _longer._

Rumple’s little boy wasn’t so little anymore.

He had to swallow a hard lump in his throat and tried to blink back the warmth he felt prickling at the back of his eyes. His voice seemed to come from a great distance, but the gratitude on Bae’s face made the words worth it.

“If-If that’s really what you want…” Bae nodded and Rumple closed his eyes but nodded in resignation. He would not – _could_ not – force his son to stay if he didn’t want to. “Then I’ll help you.”

“Thank you, Papa.”

* * *

Tensions continued to rise between the two male nagas despite their agreement. Bae’s hormones were getting so bad that he was constantly hissing and his scales occasionally shone completely bronze – not the decorative flashing and controlled patterns necessary to attract a female, but uncontrolled expressions of aggression.

By the time a week had passed, Rumple’s territory was so charged with tension that the humans were starting to notice, muttering and grumbling on the other side of the wall. The two male nagas had nearly come to blows twice, a situation that caused both of them guilt and shame. Rumple’s human didn’t come back with such a dangerous situation in place which bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

Rumple had escaped from his territory several times before so he took it upon himself to find a way out for Bae (the previous escape routes were patched every time the humans put him back.) He knew the area like the back of his hand; all of the exits and entrances, the exact heights and thicknesses of all of the walls, and where and when the human security guards and zoo keepers approached the enclosure. He also knew how the humans opened the doors, though most of them were only accessible from the outside.

After lots of observation and patrolling, Rumple finally came up with a plan he thought would work.

Late at night, long after all of the humans left other than a couple security guards on the other side of the park, he crouched low next to the food hatch at the back of his territory It was heavily barred and locked from the outside to keep the nagas away from the supply room and worker’s walkway beyond, but it was the least guarded entrance into his territory (all of the others had electronic locks that were outside of his reach on the other side of the wall – this one had a manual lock.).

Bae hovered anxiously at his back as he slipped one arm through the thick bars, feeling along the side until he found the deadbolt that kept the gate closed and the lever that would raise it. His arm was through the bars all the way to his shoulder by the time he managed to pull out the deadbolt and get a good grip on the lever to crack open the gate. With enough space to get their hands and tail-tips under, the two nagas easily forced the gate the rest of the way open and slipped through the small gap on their stomachs.

Bae’s eyes gleamed with excitement in the dim light of the building beyond – which was _very_ cramped for their long tails - and Rumple managed to pull up a faint smile in return even though leaving his territory unguarded made him anxious and unhappy.

“This way.” He hissed, too quietly for any human to hear. From this point onwards, they would need to tear through locked doors, all of which were rigged with alarms to bring security running. He slithered away, following routes he’d observed the keepers using. They slipped silently past other food hatches leading to different enclosures until they reached the door to the outside and forced their way through it. A red light lit up when the hinges broke apart, triggering an alarm, and Rumple knew they were out of time.

They rushed to the decorative tree line and managed to get there before security arrived, though they heard shouts of alarm in their wake. He’d noticed a gate on the boundary fence the last time he’d gotten out into the park and he went straight there, throwing all of the substantial strength and weight of his tail and upper body against it to smash through and provide a portal to the wild forest outside of the park.

Bae’s breathing was fast and excited and his eyes were wide and happy when he looked at his father. Even through the adrenaline and excitement of the evening, Rumple could feel his heart breaking.

“Are you sure about this, son?”

“Positive. I _have_ to, papa.” But Bae sounded excited, not upset.

“I understand.” Rumple managed to smile and reached for his boy, running his claws gently through his hair in a family-grooming gesture. Bae was too old for it, but he didn’t pull away. He actually leaned into the touch.

“I love you, Bae. And I’m proud of you.” Rumple’s voice wobbled, but remained sincere.

“Thanks papa. I love you too”

Father and son hugged tightly, entwining their tails for the last time, and then Bae slipped through the open doorway and out into the forest beyond.

Rumple watched him disappear into the darkness, distantly aware that the blinking red light over the door and pounding feet in the distance meant he was in trouble.

He should try to get back to his territory, the space he’d claimed and protected as his own that he called home…but he didn’t. He simply coiled there in front of the door, fully exposed in the middle of the pathway – until he felt a sharp sting on his neck and the world slowly faded away into unconsciousness.

* * *

When he woke up, he was curled in the tight space of the vet’s naga holding cage with a white coated figure watching him through the heavy duty glass and metal bars. He ignored the human and went back to sleep.

After the humans finished repairing the damage he’d caused to the food hatch, they put him back in his territory and he continued trying to deal with the emotions and instincts of mating season.

Alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! And please let me know what you think. :)


	6. Prompt 5

_**An Empty Nest** _

**This Prompt Fill:** Belle tries to comfort Rumple after his son leaves, and finds out a couple very important facts about him in the process.

**Prompt** : @Anonymous:And in the To My Surprise verse I’d love to see Belle realizing naga have a language and Gold is far more intelligent than she thought. **Prompt:** @Anonymous: naga prompt: ‘snake charmer’, role reversal

* * *

_This takes place shortly after the previous chapter, not long after mating season ends._

* * *

After the younger naga’s escape, the naga enclosure seemed eerily empty. It was strange - Belle had rarely seen him and they hadn’t shared a very strong connection, but his absence was like a missing tooth. Perhaps it was because of Gold’s reaction more than the missing naga.

She’d heard of captive animals suffering from separation, spending days and weeks scouring their enclosures and calling for missing offspring or mates, unable to understand how or why they were gone, but it was her inexpert opinion that that didn’t fit Gold’s behavior.

He no longer patrolled his pen, instead opting to remain curled up in the trees away from the eyes of zoo visitors and keepers alike. At meal times, he ate sparingly and sometimes turned by habit, checking on a companion that wasn’t there. Every time, he seemed to catch himself and just…droop. His reactions towards Belle fluctuated; sometimes he was almost clingy, other times he refused to go anywhere near her. All of his behavior convinced her that he understood his son’s absence…and he grieved it.

The zookeepers told her animals were not intelligent enough to feel such things as deeply as a human and, besides, nagas were unsociable predators that did better without company, but she didn’t believe them. To her eyes, Gold appeared depressed and lonely. Feeling sympathy for the lone naga, Belle went out of her way to spend as much time with him as possible, even if he seemed to prefer hiding in the trees.

One day she decided to drop by before heading home, feeling bad that Gold would spend the long night all alone. Her pockets were full of treats - strawberries and blackberries - and she didn’t bother to take any sort of weapon in with her for defense.

“Gold?” She called right inside the gate. He didn’t respond but that was common these days. Slowly so as not to startle him, she wandered into his thicket of trees. “Gold? It’s just me…” She whistled. There was no answer, but eventually she became aware of quiet rhythmic splashing sounds and followed them to their source – the small pond at the side of the enclosure. Gold was sprawled out on his stomach on his basking rock with his tail trailing into the pond. The tip of his tail was flipping listlessly in the water, creating the splashing sounds, and he was dragging one finger across the dusty stone in front of him.

For once, the naga was too distracted to notice Belle and she took the opportunity to study him without his knowledge.  He cut a striking, intimidating figure, even without the extra aggression brought on by mating season. Physically, he hadn’t changed much since their first meeting (though he had put on a healthy amount of weight), but the way she saw him had changed drastically; now, instead of seeing a man-eating predator she saw a grieving creature in need of comfort.

He was humming, she realized, a low tune that vibrated deep in his chest, climbing and falling regularly in pitch. It was oddly captivating and familiar. Was it a lullaby? A growl?

Entranced, Belle took another slow step forward without his noticing. Gold’s tail was moving in tune with his humming, she noticed, the splashes creating a rhythmic hypnotic counterpoint.

It wasn’t until the hum died away that Belle realized she’d been walking forward. Now she was well within grabbing range of the dangerous naga, who had noticed her and was coiling himself up out of his reclining position so he could meet her face to face.

Belle had been so mesmerized she hadn’t even noticed she was in danger.

In a moment of cold clarity, she realized where she’d heard the sound before – in the forest where she’d stumbled upon Gold right before he’d attacked her. Belle had to swallow down a sudden lump in her throat and paste on a welcoming smile for the grumpy, unhappy naga.

“Hi Gold.” She held up her offerings. “I brought treats!”

The naga blinked at the berries and instead of perking up, he sighed. His eyes wandered to the ground where he’d been messing around in the dust. Curious, the human followed his gaze and her eyes widened in surprise.

“Is…is that your _son_?” The crude sketch drawn in the dirt resembled two nagas, one big and one little, in the same way that stick figures resembled humans. It _had_ to be a coincidence, didn’t it? Animals couldn’t draw like that! Only humans had that degree of symbolic understanding and conceptual transference!

But the naga’s shoulders slumped at the familiar reference and he sighed again, an apparent acknowledgement.

“Gold…can you… _understand_ me?” Belle didn’t – _couldn’t_ – believe it, but it was the next logical step, wasn’t it?

But Gold didn’t react to her words, just continued staring silently at the drawing, eyes distant and wistful. Belle’s heart ached for him and her compassion quickly overcame her curiosity. He couldn’t understand her, but he was still lonely.

The crinkling of plastic caught Gold’s attention and he reluctantly turned to look at her as she removed one of the strawberries from the plastic bag. He wasn’t willing to humor her today and had no interest in obeying her orders or participating in training, but she didn’t ask him to. Instead, she held it out with a soft smile.

He accepted it with a startled blink, waiting for her to say or do something else but when his only response was a smile, he ate it. When she offered another one, he cocked his head. Then, to Belle’s surprise, he _offered it back._

She simply stared, completely surprised, until he blatantly stared between the fruit and her mouth, making his intent clear.

“Oh, no, Gold. These are for you. I don’t want-.”

His motions became more insistent until she finally accepted it back and popped it into her mouth. The satisfaction in his expression indicated that was indeed what he’d wanted.

For the next twenty minutes, they alternated and Belle slowly realized that he was willing to share his food with her, an important personal step.  The entire time, he kept his tail curled protectively around the drawing he’d made of his son, and when she left half an hour later (managing to sneak out right before the night guard discovered them and kicked her out), Gold was once again staring at it with quiet sadness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! And please let me know what you think. :)


	7. Prompt 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven’t decided yet if this is canon for this verse or not - it might be a remix (I think that’s the right term?), but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
> 
> (Also, please make sure to read the author's note at the end of the fic.)
> 
> Enjoy the fic! And please let me know what you think. :)

_**Consequences of Curiosity** _

**This Prompt Fill:** Belle has a scaly problem and is forced to rely on Gold to help her sort it out.

**Prompt** : @ashadeofpemberley (Full prompt hidden to avoid massive spoilers.)

* * *

Belle didn’t know what happened. It was just _research._ Her connection with Gold and the discoveries she’d made about his intelligence had peaked her curiosity. When her books fell short, she’d turned to field work and compiling her own data, chasing down leads about legends and myths of magic and monsters stalking in the shadows.

It was only _research._

And yet…somehow her hands itched from growing claws, her back felt like hundreds of ants were crawling over her as jewel-bright scales emerged from previously smooth skin, and her gums ached from growing teeth. Her legs cramped almost constantly but she feared that they would get far worse before they got better. Worst of all, she could barely understand what her friends were saying and when she looked at humans – at _people_ , when she looked at _people_ – she’d swear she could hear their hearts beating faster and smell their fear in the air. It made her _hungry._

This was _wrong._ Utterly, terrifyingly _wrong_.

At first, she tried to ignore it because surely it had to be her imagination, the result of reading so many legends, right? Magic did not exist. This was _impossible_.

Within the hour, she knew that was false.

Whatever this… _sickness_ …was, it spread so fast that she didn’t even get a chance to call in sick or make a doctor’s appointment. The physical changes were visible to her colleagues when she tried to leave her office and they backed off in fear and horror – which made it work even _faster_ somehow, the itch of emerging scales spreading to encompass _all_ of her skin.

Shortly, they couldn’t even understand what she was saying through frantic hisses and whimpers, which she mostly picked up from their expression, because her understanding of English decreased even more quickly. The last words she understood from them were ‘naga’ and ‘vet’. Then the pain intensified in her legs and rather than collapse, she fled towards the only person she knew who might understand.

* * *

It had been over a year since Rumpelstiltskin had been taken from his wintery home and installed in the humans’ zoo and he was well used to his captivity by now. He was also mostly content with it. The humans were either irritating (the zookeepers and vets) or amusing (the guests), with the exception of _his_ human, of course. The female who had befriended him despite his attack, who’d come to him during mating season and not spurned his attention.

_She_ was special.

His cage was spacious and built to be the perfect environment for one of his kind and he was well fed and warm. It was a sharp contrast to the starvation and bare survival he’d experienced while wild. Plus, the humans vastly underestimated him – they had no idea how smart he was even though he’d escaped so many times. Granted, all of those routes were patched now, but he was sure he could find or make a new one if it became necessary.

However, despite the opportunities, he’d also become lazy with security and spent long mornings stretched out on his basking stone in the warm sun. His own little territory. Unlike Bae, he didn’t have any desire to leave…so long as the humans treated him with respect.

As always, his life changed when he least expected it.

Pounding and scratching on the outside of his enclosure’s door dragged him from his peace and the frantic garbled half-words devolving into barely understandable high-pitched hissing instantly had him on edge. A female naga? Here? It wasn’t even mating season!

If the humans thought they could bring him a mate just because Bae was gone, or worse brought the other one _back,_ they were sorely mistaken. This time, he would not be so merciful. With thoughts of Zelena and the slashes she’d left on Bae’s back at the forefront of his mind, he coiled his tail tightly and bared his fangs and claws, hissing aggressively. His secondary venom-fangs were primed and ready to extend behind his first set of incisors.

But it wasn’t Zelena’s bright hair and poisonous green scales that slithered inside when the door finally creaked open. Instead, the invading naga fell flat on her face over the threshold. Brown hair obscured her face while light grey claws tipped the ends of her fingers, digging into the ground. What he could see of her scales was a shimmering blue and silver.

Even without seeing her face, he could tell she was beautiful.

But she was _invading his territory._

The male naga lunged forward with an aggressive warning snarl, ready to fight for his home.

* * *

Belle managed to stay on her feet despite the pain until she reached the naga enclosure, but at her destination, she collapsed. She could literally feel her bones changing shape, and the crawling, burning pain stretching down the skin of her legs was even worse than it had been on her upper body.

Before she could react beyond panting whimpers, something _slammed_ into her body and she found herself thrown against the wall of the enclosure. The sturdy metal bars impacted her head and starbursts blinded her for a moment as her head spun. It took a few moments to realize there was a presence growling angrily mere feet away and something inside her was screaming _“Run away!”_ Instead, she shook her head to clear her vision and looked up into the face of an enraged naga.

“W-wait! Gold, it’s me!” She tried to say, but the words came out as strangled whimpers and hisses. Suddenly, she was remembering how he’d reacted to Zelena’s presence and how imposing he could be when he was upset. She was an entirely different species now – what if he didn’t recognize her? He could easily kill her.

However, to her surprise, he froze. His hands, claws curled to slash and kill, flexed slowly over her shoulders but did not scratch and his enraged expression contorted into confusion.

“G-Gold? Please, please understand me…” It wouldn’t work – _she_ couldn’t even decipher the sounds coming out of her mouth, but if she could just make him recognize her…

“Human?” He hissed tentatively.

“W- _what?!_ ”

“…You’re my human.” The sounds he was making were low hisses and growls, ones she was sure she’d never heard before, but she _understood him_. In fact, his words were far more understandable than anything she’d since the transformation began.

He dipped forward, burying his face in the side of her neck and sniffing deeply. Belle’s shock froze her in place. She could feel him on her, so much closer and more intimate than he’d ever been before. Her instincts were conflicting - some of them telling her to flee, others to fight, and others to submit. Gold didn’t remain in place long enough for her to make up her mind what to do - he swayed backwards on his tail and removed his hands from her entirely.

“You’re her. You’re my human.” He sounded completely flummoxed and Belle could only shrug and nod.

For a long few minutes they simply stood (coiled?) there and stared at each other until a screeching clank interrupted the awkward silence and the gate _thunked_ closed behind Belle, trapping her inside the naga enclosure.

Gold didn’t even flinch. Belle automatically jumped…only to realize she _couldn’t_ jump. Her legs were gone. She had a _tail._

With that, cold clarity dawned. The pain was gone…but the aftereffects still lingered. She was fully transformed now, and she was trapped in the zoo’s naga exhibit with a potentially dangerous male naga.

A naga who was staring at her in shock, head cocked to the side and a low hiss echoing behind his teeth. 

She didn’t know what that meant. Was she supposed to?

Indistinct shouting from the other side of the gate caught her attention and she turned her head to look, instinctively keeping it lower than Gold’s to avoid challenging his authority.

“Why can’t I understand them?” She whimpered.

“Because they’re human.” He shrugged, unconcerned, though she thought there was a glimmer of sympathy in his eyes. “You’re not.”

“Yes I am! You even said it. I’m y-your human.” She flushed as she suddenly realized what he’d said and a hint of a smile touched the corner of Gold’s mouth.

“You _were_ human.” He corrected gently. “Now you’re not.”

Before either of them could say anything else, there was the sharp _*pop!*_ of a tranquilizer rifle from the door and Gold ducked with an angry hiss, baring his teeth at the humans, unreachable on the other side of the barrier.

“Sleep stingers!” He snapped.

Belle didn’t have the balance on her new tail to follow him when he turned to retreat into the trees and instead fell flat on her face again. Gold paused in indecision, looking back at her as if he was going to turn around to help, but a tranquilizer dart caught him in the back of his neck in his moment of stillness. He snapped his teeth angrily and pulled the dart out, but it was already too late.

“Gold?!” Belle called in alarm.

“ _Strong_ sleep stingers.” He grumbled irritably, falling to his hands on the ground. His eyes were already drooping closed and she could tell that he was succumbing to the drug - it was an expression she’d seen on him many times.Before she could decide what to do (go to him, go to the humans, maybe run away…), she felt a sharp sting in her side and looked down to find one of the tufted darts buried in her own skin.She simply stared at in shock until the world slid away into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big news! This is the last prompt fill I’ve got for my pre-existing Monster Month ‘verses. After today, I’ve got 3 entirely new ‘verses prompted that I’ll be posting over the course of the week (alien!Rumple, erlking!Rumple, and gargoyle!Rumple).
> 
> As a result (and a celebration for so many wonderful comments and followers! thank you guys so much!), **prompts are now open at my tumblr for the Monster Month ‘verses, and will be open until the end of Friday (6/24)**
> 
> Please submit your prompts as asks at my tumblr: http://villainsarebetter.tumblr.com/ask
> 
> They can be signed or anonymous (though tumblr sometimes eats anon asks), so you don't need to have a tumblr account to participate. They can also be for the future, past, or present of any fic on the Monster Month list. If you have any questions, just let me know.
> 
> Thank you again to everyone for reading, commenting, and sending kudos during my prompt fill event. You guys are amazing! :D


	8. Prompt 7

_**An Outside Perspective** _

**This Prompt Fill:** During mating season, one of Belle’s friends feels the need to talk to her about her naga’s behavior.

 **Prompt:** @Anonymous: In captivity, it isn't exactly uncommon for birds (be it a parrot to birds of prey) to claim their "handler" as a mate. This leads to them getting distressed when separated for long periods of time, or act aggressively toward other humans that aren't *their* human, among other things. What if Gold started acting in such a manner, and Belle was unable to visit for a while(sudden paperwork SNAFU and she can't even stop by), what'd happen?

* * *

After the chief of security David Nolan found out that Belle had not only entered Gold’s enclosure alone during mating season, but the naga had acted aggressively and grabbed her, he forbade her from going back in without an armed escort. And considering how much Gold _hated_ human weapons even on good days and how aggressively Gold and Fire were acting _now_ , that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

That was why Belle found herself leaning against the outside of Gold’s pen accompanied by Ariel who was doing a careful survey of the animals’ behavior. On the other side of the reinforced glass and metal fence, Gold had stretched out his tail and was carefully polishing and cleaning his scales with his claws and the pads of his fingers. Every now and then he would flex the long muscles in his tail, causing his scales to shift sinuously and glitter in the bright sunlight – an impressive and elegant display. Belle found herself mesmerized by the sight and wishing she could run her hands over the smooth, warm expanse of his scales.

“He’s looking at you, you know.”

“What?” Belle jumped, startled out of her reverie by Ariel’s words. The redhead was still looking at her clipboard, but her mouth was curled up in a mischievous smile. Her specialty was social marine animals – she had a special bond with the mermaids, capricorns, and river serpents - but there weren’t many of those in the wildlife park so her responsibilities also extended to reptiles and birds. Though, like Belle, her role had become more flexible during mating season.

“I said Gold is looking at you. I think he _likes_ you.” Ariel finally looked up and her eyes were bright and teasing. Belle shrugged, amused but feeling like she was missing something. There was a definite “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” implied by Ariel’s tone.

“I suppose… He listens to me sometimes and he lets me into his cage.” All of which was common knowledge so she didn’t understand why her friend would bring it up.

Belle was secretly proud that Gold preferred her to all of the zookeepers and trainers…but the knowing smirk on Ariel’s face made her squirm.

“Not like _that_ , silly.” Ariel scoffed. “I mean he _likes_ you. If he was a puppy, he’d be humping your leg.”

“Ariel!” Belle yelped, a blush suffusing her cheeks. “He does not! Why would you even _say_ that?” She couldn’t help the embarrassed glance she shot at the naga, as if he could hear and understand what they were saying.

The creature did not react to their words but when he realized Belle was looking at him, he flexed his tail and torso, giving her a _very_ good view of his bare chest.

Still thinking about Ariel’s words, Belle flushed an even deeper red and pointedly looked away.

“Relax, Belle.” Ariel’s hand landed on her arm. The red-head was still smiling but no longer teasing. “It happens all the time. Some of the aviary workers have to avoid their birds entirely during this time of the year and there’s a wulver on the other side of the park with an unhealthy fascination with Graham. One of my dolphins was the same way back when I was working at the marine lab. It’s fascinating, really.” She turned back toward the naga enclosure. “I wonder if it’s because of mating season? Maybe his hatchling’s age has something to do with it…”

Reassured but still embarrassed, Belle crossed her arms and refused to look back at the cage as she listened. She didn’t turn around even when Ariel’s eyes widened and refocused over her right shoulder. Her words quickly faded away and she took an uncertain step back. “Uhm…Belle?”

Belle knew what she was going to see, but she looked behind her anyway.

Noticing her discomfort, Gold had left off his grooming and approached the other side of the barrier. He couldn’t get too close; it was a double layered fence composed of the sturdiest materials in the entire park – the same ones that made up the griffin, basilisk, and dragon enclosures – but that hadn’t stopped him from rearing back on his tail and glaring aggressively at Ariel.

He was quite a sight to behold; powerful muscles flexed and bunched under his skin as he swayed slightly in place while his gold-dusted scales glittered in the sun and his bared fangs shone long and sharp.

Intimidating, aggressive, _dangerous_ …but Belle wasn’t scared. He wasn’t looked looking at _her_.

“I’m fine, Gold.” She reassured him, feeling her blush spread all the way down her neck at the knowledge that Ariel was watching her talk to the naga – an animal, if an odd one.

“He’s protective over you.” Ariel suddenly interjected, tone amused. “I told you – he’s got a crush on you, Belle.”

“He does not! I mean – he’s a reptile. Why would he even –“

“More primate than reptile, actually. Well, mentally at least.”

“Ariel…”

“Belle, _look_ at him. He’s obviously trying to court you! You’ve watched plenty of the animals do it this season!”

“That’s not-! I’m not! You… I’m not listening to this.” Burning with embarrassment, she turned and walked away without looking back, leaving her friend and the naga behind.

When she was gone, Ariel eyed Gold nervously, watching the way his eyes followed Belle’s retreating figure.

She felt compelled to talk to him, even though she knew he was simply a beast and unable to understand her.

“You _do_ know she’s not a naga, right?”

He bared his teeth in a snarl and hissed at her.


End file.
